


Five Little Things Vin Does To Let Chris Know He's Loved

by denorios



Category: Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-17
Updated: 2010-08-17
Packaged: 2017-10-11 03:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/denorios/pseuds/denorios
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mini-ficlets in response to a meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Little Things Vin Does To Let Chris Know He's Loved

**Author's Note:**

> For farad.

1\. When Chris is tired he likes to sit in the saloon and just watch the world go by. He'll nurse the same glass of whiskey for an hour, and his responses will be little more than grunts. When Ezra and Buck call Vin over for a game of poker, he'll grin, shake his head and settle in the empty chair beside Chris. He'll stretch his legs out under the table until his ankle brushes Chris' and he'll leave it there, just a small steady pressure that makes Chris' lips twitch in the smallest of smiles.

2\. When Chris is angry, and Chris is angry a lot of the time, Vin grabs him by the scruff of the neck and drags him onto his horse. Sometimes he even has to hold a gun on him to make him ride, and if both of them know Vin will never use it, the threat behind it is enough. They ride until Vin decides to stop, and when Chris launches himself at Vin he fights back. They scuffle and wrestle and brawl until they're both exhausted, and when Chris asks why, Vin just says that Chris needs to fight someone who'll forgive him after.

3\. Chris withdraws into himself in the days before the anniversary of Sarah and Adam's death. He becomes morose and monosyllabic and he lashes out at the least provocation. Buck and Vin exchange knowing glances, and Buck says nothing when Vin saddles up Peso and follows Chris out of town, just far enough back for Chris to know he's there without feeling crowded. He rides to Purgatorio, and Vin is always there, in the shadows. He watches as Chris gets sodden and dark; he keeps a hand on his gun and only needs to shift a foot, cock an eyebrow, cough gently, for any threat to melt away; he speaks gently and pays Maria; and when Chris sobs and rages on the floor he sits by his side, rubbing his back and murmuring nothing the whole night through.

4\. Vin likes to leave white oak leaves in Chris' saddlebags. No-one ever sees him put them there, and the nearest stand of oaks is some miles away. He always hides a smile when Josiah picks the leaf from where it's fallen on the ground and wonders aloud how it got there. Chris knows exactly where the leaves are from, just as he knows exactly why Vin leaves them. He'll glance over at Vin and Vin knows he's thinking of the same thing, that first time near Nettie Wells' land, hard and fast against the bark of a white oak tree, and afterwards Chris picking leaves out of Vin's hair.

5\. He stays. When there's every reason not to, when he's avoided the attentions of half a dozen bounty hunters already, when it seems as though almost everyone in town knows about the bounty and his past, Vin stays. And he tells Buck it's his sparkling personality; he tells Inez he'd miss her cooking too much; he tells JD someone needs to keep an eye on him; and he never needs to tell Nettie anything. But when Chris asks, Vin just smiles and holds his eye, and it's Chris who looks away first, Chris who coughs and ducks his head, Chris who lays a hand on Vin's arm and grips it tight.


End file.
